7 things you should know about Amazon Prime Day
It's beginning to look a lot like Prime Day.
One week from now, on July 12, Amazon will kick off its second annual sales event, basically a Cyber-Monday-in-July that promises extra savings over and above the company's usual discount prices.
So who's allowed to get in on this Prime action? What's going to be different compared with last year? How can you be sure Amazon's Prime Day price is actually the best price?
Clearly, you've got questions. Fortunately, I've got all the answers. Here's everything you need to know about Prime Day 2016.
1. What happened last year
Amazon's first stab at Prime Day was to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Although the event proved a big success in terms of sales, customers found a lot to dislike. The biggest discounts were on Amazon's own products (Kindles, Fire tablets, etc.), and those seemed to come and go at random.
Meanwhile, the majority of items on sale seemed like dollar-store clearance. Hence the quick emergence of the #PrimeDayFail hashtag.
Whether or not Amazon has learned from these mistakes remains to be seen, but the company promised "dramatically increased" inventory for select deals and category-driven search to make it easier to sift through the expected 100,000 sale items.
2. Why you should care about Prime Day
Two words: TVs and toys. Those are the big categories this year (for US customers, at least), with Amazon promising twice as much TV inventory as "Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined," and toy deals promised "nearly all day."
Of course, as noted above, there will be countless other deals as well, across just about every category. Amazon will offer Alexa-powered specials as well, so if you own an Amazon Echo, Dot or Tap, you might be able to score some exclusives.
Amazon is also promising savings of "up to 40%" on Kindle Unlimited membership, though it's not quite clear what the "up to" part is about. Currently, the ebook/audiobook subscription service costs $9.99 per month.
3. ...And why you shouldn't care
We haven't met before. I'm Rick "The Cheapskate" Broida, and I write about tech deals pretty much every day of the year. And let me tell you, every day is Prime Day. By which I mean there are great bargains to be had all the time.
Yes, as with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon may shave a few extra dollars off a TV or Kindle. But also as with those days, supplies will be limited. And the TV might be an off-brand model that wasn't really what you had in mind.
In other words, don't get caught up in the hype. If there's a particularly good deal to be had on a product you've been eyeballing, by all means grab it. But don't think this is your only opportunity to save big.
Furthermore, with Amazon planning to roll out new deals "as often as every five minutes" throughout the day, this is a rabbit hole you might want to avoid. Prime Day will definitely not be Productivity Day if you're refreshing your browser every 5 minutes. (Though see below for a handy way to keep tabs on specific deals.)
4. Prime Day is for Prime subscribers
Amazon Prime is, of course, the subscription service that affords unlimited two-day shipping, movie and music streaming and various other perks. It costs $99 per year (a very good deal, in my humble opinion).
In order to take advantage of Prime Day deals, you must be a Prime subscriber. That's the bad news; the good news is that if you've never tried the service before, you can get a free 30-day trial -- and that trial membership qualifies you for Prime Day savings.
By the way, if you're a college student, you can get a six-month free trial of Amazon Prime, after which you can snag a membership for just $49 -- 50 percent off the regular annual price.
5. Prime Day is already underway -- kind of
In this week leading up to Prime Day, Amazon has already started offering Prime Day Countdown Deals. Already in the US you'll find a refurbished Sonos Play:3 speaker for $224, and a Hisense 32-inch HDTV with Amazon's Fire TV Stick for $119.99. (Those deals are listed as of this writing and may expire or sell out at any time.)
6. Use the Amazon App to get deal notifications
Part of the challenge of Prime Day is keeping tabs on the deals that interest you, especially those scheduled to begin later in the day. If you forget, you might miss out.
Fortunately, the Amazon App lets you track upcoming deals and receive notifications when they're about to begin. It's available for Amazon Fire (natch), Android and iOS in their respective app stores. (The app also affords benefits like voice-powered search and shipment tracking.)
7. Don't assume Prime Day is the best day
As I noted above, where I come from, every day is Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime Day, etc. That means you should approach every deal with a little bit of skepticism -- or at least a little bit of research.
The best place to start: CamelCamelCamel, the site that tracks Amazon price histories. (It can also notify you when Amazon products go on sale; I recently explained how to use it to track those rare Amazon Echo deals.)
Before you pull the trigger on any Prime Day deal, copy the URL, paste it into CamelCamelCamel's search field and check the results. You may discover that the product has indeed been priced lower in the past, and therefore may be again.
At the same time, consider using a browser plug-in like Honey, which can instantly inform you if any third-party sellers have the same product for a lower price (which doesn't happen often, but it's worth checking).
Finally, be sure to check other sites. Best Buy, Walmart and other major stores may well trot out their own answers to Prime Day, offering loss-leader pricing on popular items.
This article originally appeared on CNET.